Ahead of the entrance to the store was a corridor running off to the left that led to the parking lot. Sunlight filtered in through two sets of sliding glass doors.
“I think,” Archie said, his voice low, nodding toward the doors, “that if we boot it, we can make it to the parking lot.”
Nick did not look convinced. “What if there are cars out there?”
Archie pondered the question, briefly. “I think they’re all in here.”
Nick offered a reluctant nod of agreement.
Archie whispered, “On the count of three. One—”
Nick jumped the gun, leaping off the Arrival and running with everything he had.
“Shit,” Archie said.
The Arrival that had pulled itself out of line made a squeaking noise as its tires turned on the mall floor.
Archie jumped off his Arrival. Nick was a good twenty yards ahead of him, but there was an Arrival between them. And the Arrival was catching up to Nick.
“Come on!” Nick said, glancing over his shoulder and, seeing the Arrival, pumping his legs even more furiously.
He had reached the glass doors, but the motion detector positioned over them was not accustomed to responding with the kind of speed that Nick currently needed.
There was a delay.
“OPEN!” Nick screamed at the doors.
The car was nearly on him.
Archie echoed Nick: “OPEN! OPEN! OPEN!”
When the doors had opened no more than an inch, Nick stuck his hand into the gap, as though he could somehow shape-shift and squeeze through before they opened all the way.
The door continued to open, but the Arrival was nearly on him.
“GO!” Archie screamed.
Nick had a shoulder through the door when the Arrival got to him.
The car slammed into the boy’s body, throwing him onto the hood and taking out one of the glass doors in the process.
“NOOOOOOO!” Archie screamed.
Nick’s lifeless body sprawled across the hood and then rolled off onto the floor.
Archie stared, stunned, shocked, his feet frozen, at least momentarily, to the floor.
The car got him. The car got Nick.
And now it was executing a quick turn, looking for Archie.
Move. Move. MOVE!
Archie glanced at the entrance to Discount Bonanza and those towering metal shelves of merchandise that were visible even from out here in the concourse.
They looked even easier to climb than a tall ship’s rope ladder.
Archie ran into Discount Bonanza.
Twenty-Eight
Katie, standing in the middle of the country road with Bruce, looked at the wreckage of the two Arrivals that had driven head-on into each other and said, “I’ve got to try my mom again.”
Bruce nodded, understanding.
“If anyone knows what’s going on, it’ll be her,” she said, phone in hand. “She’s gonna be mad.”
“Mad?”
“When I tell her Archie went to the mall. He played me, the little shit.”
“I don’t think this is the time to worry about that.”
She entered her mother’s phone number while Bruce studied the Arrival that had spoken to them moments earlier, revealing that its updated directive was “Elimination.”
Bruce took a step closer to the car while Katie tried to reach her mother.
“Shit,” she said. “It’s going to message... Mom? It’s me.”
Bruce knelt down beside the car, peered through the shattered side window at the dash. There was static on the screen, as if the car were still undergoing some sort of electrical convulsion.
Bruce said, quietly, “How many of you are involved in... elimination.”
The screen crackled. “Total engagement,” the car’s sultry voice replied.
“So every Arrival, every one of these cars on this island, is out to get us.”
“...but it was totally Archie’s fault. I was looking for something and when I came outside he was getting into a car with his stupid friends and they said they were going to the mall but...”
“Define ‘out to get us.’”
“Does ‘total engagement’ mean that all of the people, the pedestrians... the humans... are to be targeted?” Bruce asked.
“Yes.”
“...and he’s not a serial killer, no matter what Archie says. He’s a really good guy, and you don’t know this, but he’s been teaching me to drive at night, and I don’t know why I’m telling you all this but I guess I just want to get it off my chest but you have to call me and...”
“How do we alter your updated directive so that you no longer target people?” Bruce asked.
“Unknown.”
“But there must be a way.”
“Unknown.”
“Who updated your directive?”
“Unknown.”
Bruce sighed. “Okay, when was your directive updated?”
“Introduction of new programming occurred today at 11:17 a.m.”
“But you don’t know by whom?”
“That question has already been asked and answered.”
“Well, excuse me,” Bruce said.
“...okay? Let me know you’re okay and I’m going to try to get to the mall but if you get this maybe I can meet you there? Okay? Love you. Bye.”
Katie put her phone away and walked toward Bruce. “I left her a message.” She bit her lower lip. “I hope she’s okay.”
Bruce stood and stepped away from the car. “I’m sure.”
“Were you talking to the car?”
Bruce nodded.
“What did it say?”
“Nothing encouraging.” He tilted his head toward the Caddy. “Let’s see if we can get this sucker out of the ditch and find your brother.”
As they walked to the car, Katie said, “What do you mean, nothing encouraging?”
“It’s like we thought. It wasn’t just these couple of cars that went nuts. It’s all of them. So, if Archie was in one, it’d be a good thing to find him. Let me get behind the wheel this time.”
“Okay.”
“Not that your driving wasn’t superb. It was pretty awesome, to tell you the truth. But I’ve got a little more experience getting cars that are stuck, unstuck.”
She held out her hand in a be-my-guest gesture.
The front end of the Cadillac remained nose-down into the ditch, but the back wheels were still firmly on the pavement and not the gravel shoulder. Bruce pointed. “That’s a blessing. Mighta spun if we’d landed on the stones. Sit on the trunk.”
“What?”
“Extra weight on the back wheels should help give us some traction. You’re about the skinniest thing I’ve ever seen, but every little bit helps.”
Katie pulled herself up onto the back end of the car. The trunk lid was the size of a dining room table, if not bigger. The incoming cloud cover made the black metal less hot than she had feared it would be. At first, she had her legs dangling over the back bumper.
“Farther up,” Bruce said. “I don’t want you slipping off and getting run over.”
Given how sharply the car was tipped forward, it wasn’t hard for Katie to slide farther up the trunk. She ended up reclining against the rear window. Bruce carefully opened the front door, hanging on to it so it didn’t get away from him. He slipped onto the seat, pulled the door shut, and braced himself against the steering wheel.
He turned the key, and once the motor had roared to life, he let it idle down and carefully put the transmission into reverse. Bruce tossed his right arm over the back of the seat and turned so he could see where he was going, but all he could really see through the window was Katie, and sky.